1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical deflection probe for deflecting a light beam to scan a measuring object and an optical deflection probe device using this probe.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Devices for scanning a measuring object by deflecting a laser beam and for observing the state of the measuring object using a reflected light thereof have been conventionally used. Especially in a medical field, optical diagnosis is considered to be able to make a diagnosis requiring urgent treatment smooth and to observe a process during treatment in a noninvasive, in principle, manner without imposing a burden such as a pain on a client, and thus, expected to greatly contribute to medical care. According to such optical diagnosis, by inserting an optical probe or an endoscope into a living body, applying a signal light on a region of the living body via an optical fiber, propagating light returned backward using the same optical fiber and analyzing its strength, frequency components, etc., the state of the region is diagnosed. For example, in the pages 364 to 367 of “Hand book of optical Coherence Tomography”, edited by E. B. Bouma, 2002 discloses Optical Coherent Tomography (OCT) of interfering a signal light sent from the object or the inside of the living body by an interferometer and obtaining tomographic information of an extreme high resolution from frequency analysis of the interfered signal. Here, tomographic measurement is possible by using a wideband light source or a tunable light source as a light source.
Furthermore, an optical diagnosis method of applying a fluorescent material on a measuring region, irradiating light and observing a fluorescence spectrum to diagnose the surface state is used. Both of these methods require deflection of light in scanning a measuring object to obtain an image as two-dimensional image information.
Optical fiberscopes and their probes used in endoscopes or intravascular image diagnosis devices, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,069,698, have been used in a diagnosis of pathologic tissue or the like in a manner that scans and irradiates light in the circumferential direction on region by rotating the optical fiber itself with a motor or the like or incorporating a rotating mirror in a front end of a catheter, and images or disperses the reflected light.